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Unless you've been locked in a very small pantry and surviving on dried foods for the past several weeks (and, if so, we're really sorry about that), you know that this Sunday PokerStars will celebrate 10 years of the world's biggest online tournament. It's going to be a $10 million guaranteed party that costs $215 to get in for all regular guests.

But we were thinking...

You ever had a time in your life that maybe you were a little short on cash, but there was a movie you just had to see? Or maybe your favorite band was playing in a venue that didn't allow people of your age in? Or what about that club that had a line for VIPs when you weren't a VIP?

Did you ever find a way to get in anyway?

Well, here's your chance to play in this weekend's $10 million event for less than it would cost you to buy lunch. Interested? Keep reading.

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Need a PokerStars account to play? Click here to get an account.

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Starting today, PokerStars is offering Sunday Million Spin & Go tourneys. For five bucks, you get a chance to get a $215 Sunday Million ticket.

Here's how it works:

You buy in for $5, and the spinner gets to spinning. It could spin up a little, or it could spin all the way up to a $215 Sunday Million ticket first prize.

To see the odds on it happening and all the other details you need, visit the Sunday Million Spin & Go info page.

If those don't suit your fancy or bankroll, there are also regular Sunday Million satellites running now for as little as $0.55 or just a few StarsCoin. To play in these satellites go to Tourney > Regular or Special tabs in the PokerStars lobby.

So, go get your ticket today. And if you manage to sneak in through a satellite, let us know on our @PokerStarsBlog Twitter account.

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Wanna sneak in? Click here to get a PokerStars account.

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Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.

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Jumping on the March Madness train, the World Poker Tour released its "Champions Challenge" late last week that pitted 64 past champions in a bracket-style contest. Poker fans were invited to vote as much as once per day in the popularity contest, with the winners from the first round advancing to the Round of 32 that began on Wednesday, March 16.

The bracket's four No. 1 seeds — Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, Anthony Zinno, and Daniel Negreanu all walked through to the next round with ease, but there were also plenty of first-round "upsets."

Eight Upsets in First Round

In the Spades region, David Williams (9) beat Nenad Medic (8), Andy Frankenberger (12) beat Tommy Vedes (5), Tony Dunst (10) beat Howard Lederer (7), and Phil Laak (11) beat Matt Giannetti (6).

In the Hearts region, Dan Harrington (15) edged out Erick Lindgren (2) by the narrowest of margins, and Nick Schulman (11) beat Aaron Mermelstein (6).

In the Diamonds region, only one upset took place with Vivek Rajkumar (11) beating out Randal Flowers (6).

In the Clubs region, there was also only one upset, with Doyle Brunson (11) taking down Kevin Eyster (6).

Fun Round-of-32 Matchups

With 32 players remaining, there are some interesting matchups that will be fun to watch over the next couple of days until voting for the second round closes on Sunday, March 20.

In the Spades region, Hansen (1) will take on Williams (9), and Antonio Esfandiari (2) will take on Dunst (10).

In the Hearts region, legends Mortensen (1) and Erik Seidel (8) will face off, and Harrington (15) will duel Phil Ivey (7).

Over in the Diamonds region, JC Tran (2) will battle Scotty Nguyen (2).

Lastly, in the Clubs region, Canada-on-Canada crime will take place as Negreanu (1) faces off against Gavin Smith (8).

Those aren't the only fun head-to-head competitions, though, and you can view the complete bracket by clicking here.

So what are you waiting for? Get voting today!

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

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The Cavaliers have won 15 of the past 18 meetings with the Clippers, including a 115-102 home win on Jan. 21.

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Cleveland Cavaliers at Los Angeles Clippers (+1.5, 208)

Power forward Kevin Love will return after a one-game absence and the Cleveland Cavaliers look for their sixth victory in seven games when they visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. Love sat out Thursday's victory over the Los Angeles Lakers due to pain in both knees and he's looking to rebound from an 11-for-42 shooting slump over his last four outings.

Love's shaky play has contributed to the Cavaliers being unable to perform at the level that forward LeBron James is seeking. Cleveland's recent surge has been fueled by point guard Kyrie Irving, who is averaging 24.9 points over the last seven games after scoring 26 during Thursday's 120-108 win over the Lakers. The Clippers have won five of their past seven games as they make a run at catching the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference playoff race. The contest with the Cavaliers is followed by a five-game road trip that begins in San Antonio and concludes by visiting the Golden State Warriors.

TV: 3:30 p.m. ET, ABC

LINE HISTORY: The spread opened on Saturday afternoon with the Cavaliers pegged as 1.5 point favorites and has held steady. The total hit the board at 207.5 and rose slightly to 208 by Saturday evening.

INJURY REPORT:

Cavaliers - C T. Mozgov (Questionable Sunday, illness)

Clippers - PF L. Mbah a Moute (Questionable Sunday, eye)
                SF P. Pierce (Questionable Sunday, toe)

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Cavaliers (-8.9) - Clippers (-8.8) + home court (-3) = Clippers -2.9

WHAT SHARPS SAY: "Cleveland will be playing an early daytime game on the West Coast after daylight savings time.  The Cavaliers have been in California since Wednesday, and they’ve had two days off prior to this game, but this is still a tricky scheduling spot.  Los Angeles has alternated wins and losses over their last four games; they won at home in their last game.  The Clippers’ defense has allowed 98 points or less in four of their last five home games." - Covers Expert Steve Merril

DANCE TEAM WAR:

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (46-18): Cleveland is vying to hold off Toronto for the top seed in the Eastern Conference and is 2-0 on a four-game road trip that concludes Monday against Utah. Center Tristan Thompson has posted back-to-back double-doubles during the excursion and is averaging 14 points and 14.5 rebounds in the two contests. Thompson has scored in double digits in a season-best six straight games and is averaging 12.5 points on 28-of-41 shooting during the stretch.

ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (42-22): Small forward Jeff Green has produced back-to-back strong efforts by averaging 20 points on 16-of-24 shooting against Oklahoma City and the New York Knicks. Consistency has been an issue for Green since he was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies as he scored in double digits in only one of the previous four games, twice going scoreless. "It's great that I'm on the floor," Green said after playing 45 minutes against the Knicks on Friday. "I don’t mind it. It's all about competing. It's 5-on-5. I’m going to push through and compete."

 

TRENDS:

* Cavaliers are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 vs. NBA Pacific.

* Clippers are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 vs. Eastern Conference.

* Over is 4-0 in Cavaliers last 4 after scoring 100 points or more in their previous game.

* Under is 7-1 in Clippers last 8 home games.

COVERS CONSENSUS: The public seems to agree with our Power Rankings and is favoring the Clippers early on. The over is getting punched at a very agressive 71 percent and we can expect the total to move up, at least, another half point by gametime Sunday afternoon. "); h = d.getElementById(tid); h.parentNode.insertBefore(s, h); })(document);

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Imagine winning $83,000 during a huge poker festival and leaving the money in a taxi cab. This is what reportedly happened to 27-year-old German football pro Max Kruse when he left behind the large sum of money after attending the World Series of Poker Europe in Berlin in October 2015.

Kruse, a forward for Vfl Wolfsburg, immediately reported the incident to the police, however, they were unable to recover the lost money.

The day before Kruse carelessly left his poker winnings in a taxi cab, he was on top of the world after securing a hat trick in a 4-2 win against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

To add insult to injury, the forward, who makes approximately $96,000 per week in wages, lost over a full week's pay when the money lost was combined with a fine of about $30,000 by his football club for playing poker without their permission. Wolfsburg management also publicly reprimanded the forward in hopes of teaching him a lesson.

"You might be a private person as a footballer when you are in your bed," an official Wolfsburg statement publicized. "At any other point, you are also an employee of the club. We have explained to him what sort of behavior we expect from our players. We can only hope that he has been taught a lesson and will change his behavior."

While there are no reports to exactly how Kruse won the money, it must have been in cash games since there is no record of him cashing in any WSOP Europe event in his home country. This is despite the German newspaper Bild reporting that the money left behind was won in a poker tournament.

Kruse is no stranger to big-money poker games. Last summer, he was witnessed playing in several events during the 2015 World Series of Poker. His only tournament cash during the Series came in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship when he took 26th for $26,500.

During the 2014 WSOP, the German football pro made waves by appearing on a final table in Event #36: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. After a long-battle, Kruse fell short of a gold bracelet when he was eliminated in third place. He did bank $36,494 for his run, though.

Perhaps Kruse's love of poker will provide him a new career path when he retires from football. Last summer, Kruse shared with PokerNews editor Mo Nuwwarah, "Maybe later I can play [poker] more, when I'm 35-36. We can talk to each other then and maybe I'll have another career as a poker player."

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!

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San Antonio's 31-0 start at home is two shy of Orlando's run of 33 home wins in a row to begin the 1995-96 campaign.

USA Today Images

Oklahoma City Thunder At San Antonio Spurs (-8.5, 210.5)

The San Antonio Spurs opened the season with a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it has been a dominant run ever since. The Spurs will look to exact a measure of revenge and extend their lengthy home winning streak when they host the Thunder on Saturday in the first meeting since the season-opening encounter in Oklahoma.

San Antonio opened its five-game homestand with a 109-101 victory over Chicago on Thursday to improve to 31-0 at AT&T Center this season and extend its home winning streak to 40 games dating to last season. One more victory at home will give the Spurs sole possession of the third-longest run in NBA history as they enter this one tied with the Orlando Magic of the mid-1990s and four behind the Chicago Bulls of the same era. A meeting on the back end of the homestand with the Golden State Warriors - who pulled into Friday with an NBA-record 46 straight home wins and a three-game lead on San Antonio in the Western Conference - is looming, but the Spurs must first contend with what could be an angry Thunder squad. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 54 points but their teammates provided little support in a home loss to Minnesota on Friday, Oklahoma City's seventh defeat in 11 games.

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC

LINE HISTORY: The Spurs opened as eight point favorites at home and by early Saturday morning that line was already adjusted to -8.5. The total opened at 213 on Friday afternoon, wobbled throughout the evening, began falling overnight, and settled in at 210.5 near mid-morning on Saturday.

INJURY REPORT:

Thunder - SG D. Waiters (Questionable Saturday, personal)
               SG A. Robinson (Questionable Saturday, ankle)

Spurs - No injuries to report.

COVERS POWER RANKINGS: Thunder (-9.7) - Spurs (-16.4) + home court (-3) = Spurs -9.7

DANCE TEAM WAR:

ABOUT THE THUNDER (44-21): Starting guard Andre Roberson lasted 14 minutes before a left ankle injury knocked him out of Friday's loss. Anthony Morrow, who could pick up some of the minutes if Roberson is absent, was 1-of-8 from the floor against Minnesota and missed all six of his 3-point tries, falling to 1-of-11 from long distance over the last two games. Westbrook had 33 points and 10 assists against the Spurs in the season opener.

ABOUT THE SPURS (55-10): Only three players reached double figures in the win over the Bulls but all three - Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker - hit the 20-point mark. Parker, who also had a season-high 12 assists, was 10-of-16 from the floor after going 4-of-17 over his previous three games combined as he made a solid return from a toe injury. Thursday's high-scoring trio will hope for more support from the rest of the Spurs, who combined to shoot 14-for-43.

TWEET BEAT:

 

TRENDS:

* Thunder are 1-5-1 ATS in their last 7 games vs. a team with a winning straight up record.

* Spurs are 13-3 ATS in their last 16 vs. NBA Northwest.

* Under is 4-0 in Thunder last 4 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600.

* Under is 7-1 in Spurs last 8 games following a straight up win.

COVERS CONSENSUS: Surprisingly, the public is betting against the top team on the Covers.com Power Rankings despite the numbers above indicating that the point spread is too low. 66 percent of the bettors are picking the Thunder to cover and 64 percent of them are betting on this game to go over the number. "); h = d.getElementById(tid); h.parentNode.insertBefore(s, h); })(document);

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Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes into account a player’s results over six half-year periods. For a look at the entire list, visit the official GPI website. Here’s a look at the rankings as of March 16, 2016.

GPI 300 Top 10

Rank	Player	GPI Score	Change
1	Steve O’Dwyer	4430.60	-
2	Byron Kaverman	4220.10	-
3	Bryn Kenney	4064.73	-
4	Jason Mercier	4034.73	-
5	Connor Drinan	4006.82	+2
6	Dominik Nitsche	3961.988	-
7	Nick Petrangelo	3961.986	-2
8	Fedor Holz	3742.39	+6
9	Stephen Chidwick	3742.04	+1
10	Anthony Zinno	3742.02	-2

Steve O’Dwyer makes it 10 weeks as the world’s top-ranked tournament player according to the GPI following a relatively quiet week at the top of the rankings. The top four spots all stayed the same this week, with Connor Drinan — on the heels of an eighth-place finish in the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship — improving two spots to No. 5 (a career-high).

There’s a virtual tie for No. 6 this week between Dominik Nitsche and Nick Petrangelo (note how we had to take it to a third decimal place with those two). And the next three players are also essentially even with Fedor Holz, Stephen Chidwick, and Anthony Zinno all within half a GPI point of each other.

Sitting just outside the top 10 this week are David Peters (No. 11), Sean Winter (No. 12), and Erik Seidel (No. 13).

Welcome to the GPI Top 300

Rank	Player	Total Score
208	Robbie Wazwaz	1907.93
228	Anthony Spinella	1851.48
239	Matt Salsberg	1822.92
252	Mark Darner	1787.14
263	Aleksandr Gofman	1765.62
278	Griffin Paul	1722.49
279	Loni Harwood	1722.18
284	Derek Wolters	1714.52
286	Walid Bou Habib	1706.70
299	Kyle Bowker	1688.85
300	Terry Fan	1685.83

Looking down at the other end of this week’s GPI top 300, there are 11 new names on this week’s list with Robbie Wazwaz the top-ranked among them. A cash in the 2016 Chicago Poker Classic Championship (where he finished 20th) gave Wazwaz enough points to jump from No. 337 all of the way to No. 208, his highest ranking to date.

Other players among this group who are also hitting career peaks, rankings-wise, include Anthony Spinella (at No. 228), Derek Wolters (at No. 284), and Terry Fan (at No. 300).

Biggest Gains

Rank	Player	Total GPI Score	Change
278	Griffin Paul	1722.49	+222
228	Anthony Spinella	1851.48	+184
263	Aleksandr Gofman	1765.62	+178
123	Stefan Schillhabel	2273.68	+161
252	Mark Darner	1787.14	+135

Griffin Paul almost reached a career-high this week after leaping from No. 500 to No. 278, just five spots shy of his previous best ranking of No. 273 last October. That made him the biggest gainer of the week among the top 300 players, the move facilitated by his fifth-place showing in that aforementioned WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship.

The winner of that event, Stefan Schillhabel, also benefited in terms of GPI points, and as a result he traveled upward from No. 284 to No. 123 this week. That’s a career-high for Schillhabel as well who just made his GPI top 300 debut a month ago.

Biggest Drops

Rank	Player	Total GPI Score	Change
150	Oliver Price	2156.42	-45
233	Eddy Sabat	1840.43	-45
294	Pascal Hartmann	1694.12	-43
221	Toby Lewis	1878.87	-41
273	Noah Bronstein	1735.63	-38

Finally, looking only at those players who stayed in the top 300, Oliver Price fell the furthest after going from No. 105 to No. 150 this week.

What to Expect Next Week

The World Series of Poker Circuit Los Angeles (at the Bicycle), the Hollywood Poker Open in St. Louis (at the Hollywood), and the Foxwoods Poker Classic in Mashantucket, Connecticut highlight the current tournament festival schedule as far as the United States is concerned.

Over in Europe the partypoker WPT Vienna is underway, as is the Norwegian Championships (in Dublin).

And in Morocco the 2016 Marrakech Poker Open Main Event gets started tomorrow, with start-to-finish coverage right here on PokerNews.

To view both the 2015 Player of the Year and GPI overall rankings in their entirety, visit the official GPI website. While you’re at it, follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page.

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